Adder
The adder is the hidden striker — small, quiet, and capable of sudden harm. In dreams it often points to someone thought friendly who may yet do injury, or to a buried hurt that rises when least expected. The dream tends to ask where our trust may be misplaced, and what watches from the underbrush.
A live archive of what the world is dreaming tonight: which symbols are rising, the collective mood, and where the dreams are coming from. Free, always.
See what’s rising tonight →What the old dream-books say
These are the entries the historical dream-books record for adder, in their own words. They are period voices, not predictions, and they do not always agree with one another.
Gustavus Hindman Miller, 1901
To dream of seeing an adder strike, and a friend, who is dead but seems to be lying down and breathing, rises partly to a sitting position when the adder strikes at him, and then both disappearing into some bushes nearby, denotes that you will be greatly distressed over the ill luck of friends, and a loss threatened to yourself.
For a young woman to see an adder, foretells a deceitful person is going to cause her trouble. If it runs from her, she will be able to defend her character in attacks made on her.
Fontaine, 1862
To dream of this reptile is a sign that some one whom you think friendly to you will injure you in some way.